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Kos fire, July 2017 δημοτική ενότητα Κω · Kos

Out · last detection 13 Jul 2017, 12:17 UTC

The fire started on 13 July 2017 in Kos, Greece, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 234 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 16th largest in South Aegean since 2016 (of 25 with a page). Number 15 in Greece in 2017, of 32.

The power measured by the satellite is low (20.5 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
234ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
1day
13 Jul 2017 – 13 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
13 Jul
2017
Heat detections
3
in a single hotspot: 20 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
44MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Jul13 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

13

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

28°high
53km/h · peak gust
59%lowest humidity

It had gone 29 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Kos δημοτική ενότητα Κω 16,435 inhabitants where it started
    235 ha reached on 13 Jul
    0.8 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

What burned

  • Sclerophyllous scrub62 %
  • Other natural land29 %
  • Agricultural areas8.6 %

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
13 Jul 27.5 °C 59 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
14 Jul after 27.6 °C 57 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
15 Jul after 25.2 °C 71 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
16 Jul after 25.0 °C 74 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
17 Jul after 24.2 °C 83 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 11
18 Jul after 23.1 °C 81 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
19 Jul after 25.3 °C 70 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
20 Jul after 24.6 °C 73 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
21 Jul after 24.6 °C 76 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
22 Jul after 25.1 °C 73 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
23 Jul after 26.6 °C 62 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm High 29

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 6 Jul 2017
After · 20 Jul 2017

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 13 July 2017 the air beside the fire reached 42 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 24: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak42 µg/m³
Days over the guideline2 days
PM1059 µg/m³
111213141516
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 3Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Greece ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kos fire last?
Copernicus dates it between 13 July 2017 and 13 July 2017: 1 day between the first and last image with fire.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 234 hectares (2.3 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kos (235 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.5 °C, humidity dropped to 59 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Greece (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 112 · 199

Satellite cross-check

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112 · 199.

Where this data comes from

The perimeter and land cover come from the Copernicus European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), measured on MODIS and Sentinel-2 imagery and published under CC BY 4.0. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from each country’s official figure.